I wonder what makes them the pentagon they would be capable of mounting such a defense. Their own network has been broken into several times over the years.
Not to mention the inherent risk in having a standardized method of defense. If you have a vulnerability in one place, suddenly every network under it's protection is also at risk.

This is all besides the point that you'd be giving the government almost unlimited power over your networks and infrastructure. I'm not sure that's something you'd want to do either.

I don't know, seems like a major overhaul to create a new security perimeter would introduce a lot of new problems just because they're redesigning everything (the devil you know...). Then again, the internet was originally designed for openness and ease of distribution, not security, so it might be helpful to design something else built from the start with security in mind.

Of course the only real solution is to stop automating and connecting shit to the internet. Since that doesn't seem realistic, maybe the government could just enforce regulations on critical infrastructure owned by the private sector on security, and let them meet those regulations in their own way. However, this isn't a perfect solution, as the whole BP fiasco proves. If the private sector can save some money, they'll just bribe their way out of regulation, even if the regulation is for their own good.

Both of you have interesting points, but it seems the Pentagon may have over looked one slight, simple problem, this problem is in regards to the people who would control such a defense network.

Who is to truly say whether the people working for them aren't in fact spies for a foreign power, a member of a radical militant group or just a traitor full stop.

People are considered the weakest link in the chain of defense, it always will, and always will be.

No system can run on its own without the aid of humans, of course, then there is the down time in which problems have caused to the system, even nuclear warheads need checking, so even with a backup system in place, there is always a possibility of those systems going down as well. Leaving the country open to an attack.

Its utterly useless and a complete waste of the American tax payers money - who would never see the project be completed or be able to reclaim the money back on such a project, or even the time the people lost working on it.